Eyewitness Identification by Theft Victims

Abstract

Since 1975, there has been much research on how eyewitnesses to a criminal event encode, retain, and retrieve information about what they have witnessed (see, e.g., Lloyd-Bostock & Clifford, 1983; Loftus, 1979; Yarmey, 1979). Although much useful information has been gained from this research, several investigators have questioned the generalizability of these results to naturally occurring situations (e.g., Malpass & Devine, 1980; Wells, 1978). For example, studies have questioned whether telling versus not telling eyewitnesses that a criminal event was staged affects the accuracy and confidence of their reports (Murray & Wells, 1982; Sanders & Warnick, 1981).